We were lucky to catch up with Tanika Barber recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tanika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

In 2020, I opened my group private practice with the mission of providing mental health services to individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, and trauma. I was committed to helping others navigate their healing journeys—but what I hadn’t fully acknowledged at the time was that I was still navigating my own.

As the world shut down and life slowed to a halt, I could no longer outrun the silence or the symptoms. I had to face a truth I had been avoiding for years: I, too, was struggling with depression and anxiety. I had spent so much of my life being the strong one, the go-to, the helper, that I had never given myself permission to truly feel or be held. That realization rocked me. But it also set me free.

It was in that vulnerable space that Let’s Heal Sis was born. What started as a whisper—a quiet nudge to create safe, soulful spaces for women—became a roar. I realized that healing for BIPOC women couldn’t just be clinical. It had to be communal. It had to be spiritual. It had to be rooted in sisterhood, softness, and stillness.

Since then, I’ve dedicated my work to curating sacred healing experiences through sister circles, retreats, sound baths, journaling, and holistic wellness practices. The biggest lesson I’ve learned? You can’t lead others where you haven’t gone yourself. Doing my own inner work gave me the clarity, compassion, and courage to show up more authentically—not just as a therapist, but as a healer.

And that changed everything.

Tanika, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m known in the community as The InnerG Healer—a licensed clinical social worker, holistic wellness practitioner, and the founder of Let’s Heal Sis, a sacred space and movement dedicated to creating healing spaces for BIPOC women to reconnect with themselves, their inner wisdom, and their joy. But as I supported others, I had to face my own truth: I was silently battling my own uncomfortableness. That moment became a turning point, pushing me to do the deeper work of healing myself so I could hold space for others in a more authentic and holistic way.

Through Let’s Heal Sis, I’ve been able to merge my clinical expertise with holistic healing practices like sound therapy, meditation, breathwork, and Reiki, offering an approach that nurtures mind, body and soul. We provide transformative experiences that go beyond talk therapy, creating spaces for BIPOC women to feel soft, seen, supported, and safe. Each year, we host the annual Let’s Heal Sis Workshop Event, as well as healing retreats: internationally, domestic, and our signature Sis, You Need a Break weekend. This year, we traveled to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for our Nourish Your Soul retreat. Next year we will host in Belize and in 2027, we are scheduled to host in Bali. Throughout the year, we offer a variety of monthly wellness workshops, sound baths, sister circles, guided meditations, and self-care practices designed to support women in their healing and self-discovery journeys.

What sets me apart is my ability to blend clinical knowledge with spiritual and holistic practices, honoring the full spectrum of healing. I don’t believe healing is one-size-fits-all. I believe in creating sacred spaces where women can lay their burdens down, reclaim their softness, and honor every part of themselves without judgment. I’m most proud of the community Let’s Heal Sis has cultivated—a sisterhood rooted in love, vulnerability, and transformation.

If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s this: healing doesn’t have to be done alone. There is beauty in your becoming, power in your story, and strength in choosing yourself. Together, we can heal.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the moments that truly tested and revealed my resilience came shortly after I opened my group private practice. At a time when I should have been celebrating such a big milestone, I found myself overwhelmed—juggling the demands of running a business during a global pandemic while silently battling my own anxiety and depression. I was the therapist, the business owner, the supervisor, the mentor—and yet I felt like I was drowning inside. I had spent so much of my life being strong for everyone else that I didn’t even know how to ask for help for myself.

When I finally decided to seek support, I received so much judgment and confusion from family and friends who asked, “Why does a therapist need a therapist?” I remember thinking to myself, Doesn’t a doctor go see a doctor? Wouldn’t a lawyer need a lawyer? Well, why can’t I? That was such a pivotal realization for me. I knew I deserved support, too. I began searching for holistic ways to help with my own healing journey and came across a holistic wellness provider who was offering a 4-day holistic mastermind course. I signed up—and I remember feeling so full, so inspired, and excited about the possibilities of cultivating healing not only within myself but also for the women I served.

At the end of the mastermind, she extended an invitation to join her 6-month Holistic Academy. Financially, I wasn’t sure how I could make it work. I remember sitting down with my budget and asking myself, Okay Tanika, how can we figure this out? I made some cuts, prayed over the opportunity, and trusted that it would work out. And it did. That investment became the best decision I’ve ever made for both my personal healing and my business growth. Through that program, I met some beautiful women who are now my business besties and sisters. We hold each other accountable, pour into each other, and uplift one another—and for that alone, I no longer feel alone.

That season taught me that resilience isn’t about doing it all by yourself—it’s about giving yourself permission to ask for help, to invest in your healing, and to surround yourself with people who see and support your vision. It’s why Let’s Heal Sis is so deeply rooted in community and collective healing—because we don’t have to walk this journey alone.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was the idea that I had to follow a traditional path to be successful. Early in my career, I believed that success meant climbing the ladder in a very linear way—working within systems, staying within the lines, checking all the boxes society expected of me. I thought that as long as I earned the degrees, secured the titles, stayed within the roles I was “supposed” to play, and followed the structure laid out before me, I’d feel fulfilled and accomplished. But the deeper I got into my work as a therapist, the more I started to feel boxed in. I realized I was outgrowing the confines of those expectations and the traditional mold of what a therapist was supposed to be.

I remember sitting in my office one day, staring at my calendar packed with back-to-back therapy sessions, documentation deadlines, supervision meetings, and agency demands, and thinking, Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing? Is this all there is? I loved the work of helping people heal, but something inside of me longed for more. There was an inner pull toward creating something more expansive—something that blended healing, creativity, spirituality, and sisterhood—but I kept silencing it because it didn’t “fit” the mold of what a therapist was traditionally taught to do. I was afraid that stepping outside of the box would make me seem less professional or that others in the field wouldn’t take me seriously.

It wasn’t until I allowed myself to explore holistic wellness practices—like sound healing, meditation, breathwork, and energy work—that I began to understand healing doesn’t have to be confined to an office or a 50-minute session. I realized healing could happen in community, in sacred circles, in movement, in stillness, in shared vulnerability. I had to unlearn the belief that my work had to look like everyone else’s. I had to let go of the idea that following a non-traditional path would diminish my credibility or success.

Once I gave myself permission to step outside the lines and trust my own vision, Let’s Heal Sis took off! It became a space where I could show up as my full, authentic self and invite other women to do the same—a space for healing the mind, body, and soul. Through community, events and retreats, I’ve been able to create experiences that nourish women on every level, not just address symptoms.

Unlearning the need to follow tradition has been so freeing. It’s allowed me to build a business that feels deeply aligned with who I am and what I’m called to do. And the most beautiful part is seeing the ripple effect it has on the women I serve—reminding them that they, too, get to define success, healing, and joy on their own terms.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.letshealsis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letshealsis/

Image Credits

Moonking Moments